Romans 7.6a-The Jewish Christian Has Been Discharged From The Law As A Result Of Being Identified With Christ In His Physical Death
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 26, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:6a-The Jewish Christian Has Been Discharged From the Law As A Result Of Being Identified With Christ In His Physical Death
Lesson # 215
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
This evening we will begin a study of Romans 7:6, which completes the first paragraph contained in Romans chapter seven.
This evening we will note Romans 7:6a, in which Paul teaches the Jewish Christians in Rome that they have been discharged from their legal and moral obligations to the Mosaic Law as a result of being identified with Christ in His physical death.
Tomorrow, we will note Romans 7:6b, which teaches that as a result of being discharged from the Law through their identification with Christ in His physical death, the Jewish Christians in Rome are forever servants of God the Father.
In this passage, he also teaches that this was accomplished by means of the extraordinary work of the Spirit the moment they trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior and never by means of the useless observance of the letter of the Law.
Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?”
Romans 7:2, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.”
Romans 7:3, “So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
Romans 7:5, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.”
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
This passage summarizes Paul’s teaching in verses 1-5 of this chapter and presents a contrast with Paul’s statement in Romans 7:5.
Romans 7:6 contrasts the effects of being under the authority and dominion of the Mosaic Law with that of obeying the gospel and being placed in union with Christ and under the authority and dominion of the Holy Spirit.
In Romans chapter eight, Paul illustrates in greater detail his statement here in Romans 7:6.
The remainder of chapter seven is concerned with Paul’s statement in verse 5, which speak of the effects of being under the Law.
Therefore, Paul is in effect “postponing” temporarily his contrast between the sin nature and the Spirit until chapter eight in order that he might emphasize the Christian’s deliverance from the jurisdiction and condemnation of the Mosaic Law as well as the implications of his teaching concerning the Law itself in verses 7-25.
The contrast is “temporal” in that Paul is clearly contrasting the state of the Roman Christians when they were unsaved with their present status of being born-again, in union with Christ.
It is also “logical” in that if the Jewish Christian is released from the jurisdiction of the Law and dead to it because of his identification with Christ in His physical death and placed in union with Him, then the Jewish Christian, logically speaking is forever a servant of God.
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
“Now” is the adverb of time nuni (nuniv) (noo-nee), which places greater emphasis upon the present regenerate state of the Roman Christians in contrast to their previous unregenerate state under the Mosaic Law.
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
“We have been released” is the verb katargeo (katargevw) (kat-arg-eh-o), which is used in relation to the Jewish Christian’s relationship to the Mosaic Law and means, “to be discharged in a legal and moral sense” from the Law.
The verb is used in the context of Paul’s marriage analogy.
Therefore, katargeo implies that just as a Jewish woman’s marriage contract with her husband is “rendered as completely null and void” once her husband dies so the Jewish Christians’ relationship to the Law is “rendered as completely null and void” since he has died to the Law through the death of Christ.
In Romans 7:6, the verb katargeo means that the Jewish Christian is “discharged in a legal and moral sense” from his obligation as a citizen of Israel to obey the Law just as a Jewish wife is discharged from her martial obligations to obey her husband when he dies.
Of course, the Jew could not render perfect obedience to the Mosaic Law, which the Law demanded because of the presence of the sin nature.
James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”
Only Jesus Christ rendered perfect obedience to the Law.
What the Law could not do through sinful mankind, God the Father did through the Person and Work of His Son on the Cross (Romans 8:1-8).
Therefore, the Jewish Christians in Rome Paul says have been discharged from the Mosaic Law in the sense that they are free from being condemned by the Law because they could not keep it perfectly.
The first person plural form of the verb katargeo is an “inclusive we.”
In context, it means that it is referring to Paul and his Jewish Christian audience, who like himself, have been identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a result of being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Remember, in context, Paul is addressing specifically the Jewish Christians in Rome.
However, although he is writing to them directly, his comments would protect the Gentile Christians who read this epistle from the Judaizers’ attempts to put them under the Law.
The passive voice of the verb means that the sinner who trusts in Jesus Christ as their Savior as the subject received the action of being discharged from the Law through their identification with Christ in His physical death by the unexpressed agency of God the Holy Spirit.
Although the Holy Spirit is not explicitly mentioned as the agency as identifying the believer with Christ in His physical death, a comparison of Romans 6:4, and 1 Corinthians 12:13 make clear that He was the member of the Trinity that performed this act.
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
“From the Law” indicates that the moment that Paul and his fellow Jewish Christians in Rome were declared justified through faith in Christ, they were discharged “totally and completely separated from” the Mosaic Law.
“Having died” is the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhv|skw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), which refers to “retroactive positional truth.”
“Retroactive positional truth” refers to the fact that when Christ died physically on the Cross, God considers the believer to have died with Him as well through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
In Romans 7:6, the verb apothnesko denotes that the Jewish Christian is no longer under the authority and dominion of the Mosaic Law because he died with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It functions as a participle of “result” indicating that the Jewish Christians in Rome were discharged from the Mosaic Law in the sense of being condemned by it “as a result of” or “subsequent to” having died to it through their identification with Christ in His physical death.
Romans 7:6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”
“That by which” indicates that the Jewish Christians in Rome had died “in relation to” or “with respect to” the Mosaic Law as a result of being identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
“We were bound” is the verb katecho (katevxw) (kat-ekh-o), which refers to being “bound” to the Mosaic Law in a legal and moral sense just as a Jewish wife is bound to her husband legally and morally.
It refers to the fact that prior to their conversion to Christianity, the Jewish Christians were bound legally and morally to the Mosaic Law.
However, through their identification with Christ in His death, they have been discharged from their marriage to the Law or their obligations to obey the Law just as a Jewish wife is free from her marital obligations to her husband when he dies.